Salman Butt Century Sets Up Pakistan Clean Sweep

Saturday 19 April 2008

Pakistan 329-9 (Salman Butt 136, Younus Khan 69) v
Bangladesh 179 (Mahmudullah 37, Mohammad Asif 3-35)
Pakistan won by 150 runs and win the series 5-0
By John Pennington
Salman Butt scored another century before Bangladesh's batting crumbled as Pakistan easily won the fifth and final One Day International in Karachi by 150 runs.
Butt hit 136 as his side scored 329 for nine having won the toss and chosen to bat first and Bangladesh collapsed in familiar style to be bowled out for 179 in the 41st over.
Although Kamran Akmal (ten) departed early, caught by Junaid Siddique off of Mashrafe Mortaza, Butt combined with Younus Khan (69) to add a 189-run stand for the second wicket.
Younus celebrated a return to the side by hitting four fours and one six in his 80-ball knock while Salman smashed 14 fours and one six in 124 balls.
Bangladesh hit back once those two had departed, but Pakistan counter-punched with Mohammad Yousuf (22), Shoaib Malik (27) and Misbah-ul-Haq (35) all scoring their runs at a run a ball or better.
Only Shahid Afridi (four) failed to cash in. In the quest for quick runs later on, Naumanullah (five) and Wahab Riaz (three) also fell cheaply as Mashrafe Mortaza returned figures of four for 65, Shahadat Hossain backing him up with three for 76.
There were two wickets for Abdur Razzak, the only other bowler to strike but in amongst the carnage Shakib Al Hasan, by far and away Bangladesh's player of the series, bowled his overs for a relatively economical 5.2 runs each.
Mahmudullah and Farhad Reza, who between them made up the fifth bowler, leaked over seven per over between them.
Mahmudullah was then the only Bangladesh batsman to show the sort of application and resolve required but having come to the crease at 23 for four, his innings was necessarily slow, occupying 82 deliveries and containing just fours.
Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul were again too good for the top order, removing Tamim Iqbal (nine), Junaid Siddique (six), Aftab Ahmed (nought) and Shakib Al Hasan (five) to effectively end the match as a contest.
Mahmudullah combined with his captain Mohammad Ashraful (30) to add 39 for the fifth wicket and Dhiman Ghosh (29) to score 57 for the seventh wicket.
Shahid Afridi, who as he so often does when he fails with the bat, made his mark on the game with the ball, taking the wickets of Ashraful, Ghosh and Mortaza before last pair Abdur Razzak (33) and Shahadat Hossain (nine) held up proceedings with a stand of 32.
Wahab Riaz ended the game when Razzak was caught by Younus Khan and Pakistan completed the easiest 5-0 clean sweep in history.
Pakistan welcomed back Younus, and handed a debut to Naumanullah at the expense of Bazid Khan while fast bowler Wahab Riaz was preferred to Sohail Khan.
Bangladesh dropped opener Shahriar Nafees, replacing him with Junaid Siddique but otherwise were unchanged from the side which lost heavily in Multan.
Pakistan led the series 4-0 ahead of today's match and a Twenty20 International tomorrow.
ï¿½ Cricket World 2008